Review by Jo Tomalin
11/12/25
ForAllEvents.com
Burnout Paradise by Pony Cam
Burnout Paradise by Pony Cam at Bing Studio in Stanford, CA on November 12, 2025. Photo Credit Matthew W. Huang
Burnout Paradise has arrived in town and is a must see show – the intriguing title is evocative of many things and so is the experience! Presented by Stanford Live at the Bing Studio in Stanford, California, Burnout Paradise runs November 12-15, 2025.
This is inspired programming by Stanford Live – and it’s a welcome palate cleanse from our daily tasks. Instead get yourself to the theatre to see others do their tasks! The creative theatre company Pony Cam from Australia is an award-winning experimental collective of five theatre makers. Burnout Paradise is created by Pony Cam Collective: Claire Bird, Ava Campbell, William Strom, Dominic Weintraub, and Hugo Williams; Produced by Dans Maree Sheehan for Parrot Ox.
Formed in 2019, Pony Cam has created several shows on wide ranging themes such as a food drama, an apocalyptic fantasia set inside a teenage dystopia and a large-scale community-led intergenerational collaboration. The cast of Burnout Paradise comprises Laura Aldous, Claire Bird, William Strom, Dominic Weintraub, and Hugo Williams.
As an ensemble creating their own original work Pony Cam Collective’s ideas are fresh and edgy with underlying reflections of society challenging audiences to question their conventional ways. Pony Cam’s latest show, Burnout Paradise is a unique experience for all in the theatre as it disrupts the performance space (and the audience space) in such a way that is completely unexpected and truly wonderful!
The stage is set with four treadmills each with a cardboard sign on the front: Survival, Admin, Performance and Leisure. These topics are common to us all and relatable, but it is the way each topic is explored and how their numerous tasks are carried out that is the structure of this show. The performers arrive and have their To Do list of “deadly tedious tasks” ready and they challenge each other to complete everything in their lists 100% while running on treadmills! Yes, these performers get their steps in mightily, bravely – and hilariously!
Burnout Paradise by Pony Cam at Bing Studio in Stanford, CA on November 12, 2025. Photo Credit Matthew W. Huang
While Claire, William, Dominic and Hugo run ferociously forwards, backwards and sideways while doing household tasks, theatre company office work, performing their own skills and leisure activities, Laura is the warm and friendly host who is also the time keeper and makes sure everything happens. Laura comes around offering beverages on a tray and periodically updates a chart with miles run by each runner. The runners valiantly prepare vegetables, type forms, act, dance or do a Rubric’s cube, to name but a very few of the things they need to accomplish – as a race against time, energy, their minds and spirits.
It’s suddenly busy and gets a bit frantic, is it mayhem? Maybe, but it’s absolutely brilliant and the audience help out here and there, melting the conventional stage and audience division in the most creative way. Make no mistake, it is the afore mentioned structure of this piece by Pony Cam that is the art in Burnout Paradise and what may look chaotic or silly is highly imaginative gutsy stuff and was very well received by the audience at the performance I attended on 11/12/25.
The sixty five minute show is entertaining, physical and interactive, challenging us to consider how we spend our time on this planet – and Burnout Paradise creates a delicious complicity with everyone in the shared space. This is a dynamic rethinking of theatre! Highly Recommended 5 Stars!
More Information:
Stanford Live
https://live.stanford.edu/
Pony Cam
https://ponycam.co/
